1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to backup software for a storage cluster that includes a plurality of nodes that host storage volumes, and a plurality of backup storage devices. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for dynamically updating the backup configuration information used by the backup software in response to automatically detecting changes in the configuration of the storage cluster.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer-executable backup software is often used to backup data in order to protect it against hardware failure, accidental deletion, or data corruption. The data may be stored in one or more file system volumes in the form of files. Backup software may operate to backup a volume either at the file level by individually backing up each file in the volume on a file-by-file basis, or at the block level by creating a block-level backup image of the volume (typically including metadata for managing the volume as well as the file data).
Backup software can be used to backup data stored on standalone computers, as well data stored in storage clusters that include a plurality of nodes. For example, each node in a storage cluster may host one or more storage volumes that need to be backed up. The storage cluster may include one or more separate backup storage devices onto which the volume data from the nodes is backed up. In order to perform backup operations for a storage cluster, the backup software needs to know various aspects of the cluster's configuration, such as the cluster topology (e.g., which nodes and backup storage devices are present in the cluster, and how they are interconnected), as well as other information, such as which volumes are implemented in the cluster and which node hosts each volume.